Go West: Architonic strengthens its presence in North America

With its HQ in Zurich, Architonic has spent the last ten years building up an unparalleled and powerful online resource for architecture and design.

Selecting and showcasing only the best products and materials internationally, we’ve created the number-one professional community that connects premium-segment manufacturers, high-end retailers, agents, architects, designers, leading trade fairs, PR agencies and journalists, marrying detailed product information and the latest intelligence with top-drawer creativity.

While in terms of the geographic spread of architonic.com’s users, we’ve always had a strong presence in North America – the second largest constituent of our website’s 16 million visitors a year is located in the US and Canada, clocking up over 200,000 visits a month – Architonic has made the strategic decision to truly go West and focus on offering its innovative products and services to the North American market. By, among other initiatives, extending our on-the-ground team with a new New York-based representative, our aim is to expand our existing American and Canadian client base, which includes the likes of Knoll International, Emeco, Molo and Maharam.

Anna-Elisa Jankovics is Archtonic's lead sales representative for North America and joined the company armed with a wealth of experience gained in the architecture industry, having worked for such offices as Staab Architekten and Sauerbruch Hutton. She understands the commercial and brand value that Archtonic can deliver to its members and considers Architonic’s heightened North American activity as vital to a confident regional market eager to grow and strengthen its customer base internationally.

"There are some big-hitting brands in the North American market playing in the same league as some of their European counterparts," says Jankovics, "but their brand awareness on the other side of the Atlantic is far from optimal. There is a major opportunity for North American manufacturers to extend their reach, connecting with Architonic users on both sides of the pond. American design and architectural history is an incredibly rich one, featuring such creative greats as Frank Lloyd Wright and Charles and Ray Eames, to name but a few; Architonic is proud to be the online network for design, bringing together what belongs together."

Indeed, with the American economy in full recovery mode after the downturn of the past few years, Architonic furnishes North American manufacturers, retailers, architects and others with a world stage on which to promote themselves. Their presence on Architonic among the best design brands and creative practices around – in particular the most respected names from European design manufacturing – also assists in strengthening their brand presence at home through association: the popularity for European design stateside continues apace.

Todd Heiser, Senior Associate and Design Director at Gensler, the global architecture, design and planning firm and one of many North American architectural offices to enjoy a professional profile on architonic.com, relies on Architonic as an indispensable part of his professional international research. ‘Architonic is an exhaustive resource for designers,’ he says. ‘It’s a one-stop Wikipedia of design resources. I use the site as a tool for specifying products almost daily and I love the printed guides for the international fairs.’

But there’s more: in addition to Architonic’s eminently searchable database of products and materials (140,000 and counting!) and our suite of popular trade-fair guides, our professional tool kit now includes over 100 manufacturer-specific and special-issue apps, with this year’s ICFF in New York seeing the launch of the two latest Architonic applications for iPad, iPhone and Android: ‘Best American Design Brands’ and ‘Best Canadian Design Brands’.

And thanks to Architonic’s strategic alliance with leading online design magazine designboom.com, with its 4 million readers a month, there’s even more opportunity for North American Architonic members to achieve a truly global reach by doubling their product presentation and advertising potential.

But don’t take our word for it. Visit us at ICFF this May and see for yourself. With a number of New York appearances under our belts, this year Architonic will be at North America’s preeminent design trade show with an even stronger presence than before – a stand, plus a number of the Architonic team, including founders and managing directors Tobias Lutz and Nils Becker, and, of course, our sales team for North America. We would be happy to talk you through not only the new apps, but also to show you how Architonic can work for you on a worldwide scale.

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Architonic at ICFF
ICFF New York
18–21 May 2013
Stand no: 2000